I think the 2 happiest guys in the field (besides Jim Drago getting the win) have to be Dave bednarz and Chip Van Vurst. Dave had to swap a motor and trans after Q1 and drove a great race to end up 3rd. Chip was the closest thing to Rocky I've seen at a race track in a long time. He got up off the mat after an engine failure in Q1, a rollover in Q2 and then had to start the race at the back of the field due to a grid error. All that and he finished 4th. Amazing.
While I agree with Bednarz and Chip. Jim Drago is not all that "happy".
This will probably be long winded, so bare with me.
To start, As I have said several times before on this site and to many in person and whenever asked. THIS HAS ALWAYS BEEN MY FAVORITE WEEKEND IN RACING. I anxiously await it every year. Well, for 2012 , I am skipping it and heading to the US Gran Prix in Austin, this mess or "race" this weekend made my decision for me.
The recap of the weekend.
Until the end of qualifying, all was good, we put four of the cars in the top five and I was on pole, not sure how things could have been much better. The drama started with the race.
As pole sitter, I was at the tail of line one, behind all the T3,SSB and SSC cars, ready for the split start. I was followed by the top 12 SM qualifiers. Line 2 was headed by Jarret Gerber. I think Gerber held, Voytek went, as he should as they were waiving them on. They shuffled themselves in pit lane, but best guess as I haven't seen my video, I think p11 started on pole. The top 12 started 12-24. Then Tony decided to take his position, well he took pole as he had qualified ahead of all the others, putting Gerber outside pole. While this was going on, 10 ft out of the pits, at least 10 people notified the stewards of this and asked for them to black flag and re-grid us. The stewards knew it was wrong, they were heard talking about it on the scanner. No idea why they didn't do anything?
In my mind, Tony's race was over the minute he went to the front of the field. A team mate was dq'ed for this two weeks before in Texas, so I was not moving regardless of how many moved. But only Tony went. I felt confident in my ability to pass all in front of me with the exception of Tony, who in my opinion was no longer a factor.
So to the best of my recollection, I started around 11-13th, that put the guys originally in 1-12 in 11-25 or so? So the guy who had an outside chance of winning if gridded correctly now knew they have to drive the race of their lives to have any chance, no one was giving much room. So to no surprise, there was pretty bad wreck with my Team mate Craig Berry, Bender and Harry Manning. Again blocking came into play, with guys who had no business being there in the first place.
I saw this coming and was following Berry through, I locked up my tires and was hit by a big piece of something in the windshield that I was certain was coming through. So now I had two flat spotted tires as well, not sure how I got through really. After the wreck, Black flag, along with assurances we would run full distance, I was understandably irate. I think I was 6th or 7th then.
I was able to get a good restart and thankful to Derek Whitis and Danny Steyn who realized the grid mistake and made it far easier for me to pass them than they needed to. After a few laps, I got up to the leaders, going into 8, I forgot to tap brakes after 7 and had pad kick back and lost the pedal, I tapped Tony there, my mistake. I got by Tony and Voytek, started to check out a bit and felt I had the race in hand. Then I start hearing noises. Some how we missed the power plant bolts on the trans in our nut and bolt check. There was some grinding and the shifter started going up and down about 8-10 inches from bumps,braking and acceleration. Tony said sparks were flying under the car and stuff was flying off, I assume it was one of the bolts. Seeing Tony was the only person close, I slowed down as I was having nightmares of the car using the power plant brace as a pole vault or the brace coming through the car and my legs etc. But it was the Sprints, I was dumb, so I stayed out. When it started to pour , David, it was no sprinkle, I assure you.. I got a little wide in three and Tony drove by. I figured I better get close enough to lead the next and last lap as it is always better to take matters into your own hands when you can. As I was drafting past Tony at the line, I saw the flagger put the white flag down and through the checker, Tony had beat me to the line by a few feet or less. I drove around figuring I had won as Tony was certainly getting a DQ.
Well then all the drama.. I don't come for this crap. I love to race and compete, I hate this crap. I was called to talk to Mike Harris, the chief Steward. Danny Steyn came with me. We practically begged him to handle the situation without a protest. I have never protested anyone before and hoped I would end my driving career never filing one, let alone against a guy like Tony who I consider a friend and a driver I respect. That coupled that there is no way this ever comes into play if the raced was handled properly. Tony made a bad decision, but he should have never had a decision to make. I am not happy with this, not happy to win this way. But the flip side, I was not happy losing that way either. The dynamics of the race completely changed when the grid workers sent us out incorrectly, it was like a house of cards, that once the first card was placed wrong, everything fell apart.
In my opinion, The Chicago region owes the class a public apology, we had no "race" we had a cluster. Yes, I won, this is third time, but it doesn't compare remotely to the first two. I feel sorry for the guys whose cars got wrecked because of the poor decisions made. I also feel bad for Tony in this mess. I think as a gesture of good faith, Chicago region should offer a partial refund to ALL SM competitors, we paid them for structure and a race, what we got was a mess. The worst I have ever been a part of personally. My apologies to all of you who left with a wrecked car because of this mess.
The only thing I take as a positive or feel a sense of accomplishment from this weekend is that the three cars under my tent were likely the three best cars at the race in terms of power and handling. We have spent a lot of time and money getting there and seeing it pay off with dominate cars makes me far more "happy" than the win did for sure.
Jim